Trade Deadline Summary: Winners & Losers Of The Central Division

The NHL Trade Deadline has come and gone, and while it wasn’t the most exciting deadline day in recent memory, there were quite a few notable moves. Here are the winners and losers of the “wild” Central Division:

Winners

Of course the Blackhawks are winners on deadline day. Did you expect any less? Although they didn’t make any major moves, Chicago brought in two players via trade that can help them immediately. Oduya, a former Blackhawk, is still familiar with the system and has played with many of the current players. Oduya should be able to step in right away, play major minutes, and form a shutdown pair with Niklas Hjalmarsson(when he’s healthy). Just like the good ’ol days. Meanwhile, like nearly any forward, Jurco has a skill set that will fit in well with Chicago’s star forwards and for just the cost of a third-rounder, could represent a long-term fit with the Blackhawks.

The Stars are a tough team to place at the 2017 deadline. They are in the midst of an unforeseen epic collapse of a season and have done well to trade their impending free agents. If Patrick Sharp, Ales Hemsky, and Adam Cracknellweren’t all hurt, Dallas would be a deadline loser for not moving them. As it stands, they did hold on to Jiri Hudler, but traded their three other healthy upcoming UFAs. Eaves earned them great value in return and Korpikoski, a late off-season addition, nets a promising young defenseman in Heatherington. Even McNeill and a fourth-rounder for Oduya is a pretty good deal. So for those three moves anyway, GM Jim Nill did well. With that said, the Benn trade was ill-timed and doesn’t make your team better. Benn still had term on his contract and was the team’s best defensive defenseman and, of course, captain Jamie Benn’s older brother. Dallas will likely regret that move. The Stars are teetering on the edge of winner and loser, but they’ve been through enough this season, so we’ll call them winners.

The Wild did give up a lot to get the big Coyotes pivot Hanzal. This trade could even turn out to be a disaster. For now though, Minnesota has to be a winner for going out and getting the top forward on the trade block. Many expected the Wild to be quiet at the deadline and instead they swooped in and stole Hanzal right out from underneath several other hungry contenders. The move gives Minnesota undeniable depth down the middle for the stretch run and postseason and may just make all the difference in the playoffs this time around. If the Wild win the Stanley Cup in 2017, no one will be that worried about losing three years of high picks.

The hardest thing for a GM to do is to trade an impending free agent star in the middle of a playoff race. Doug Armstrong deserves a lot of credit for having the guts to move Shattenkirk with the Blues in the thick of the Western Conference wild card race. Could he have gotten more for Shattenkirk this summer or even earlier this season? Yes. However, the return he ended up getting is a strong one, especially considering the Capitals see Shattenkirk as a rental instead of a long-term investment. The 2017 pick and Sanford will help St. Louis to rebuild on the fly. After moving Shattenkirk, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see the Blues target some extra help on the blue line or use the cap space on a rental scorer, but neither of those players would put St. Louis over the top as a contender this season, so no use wasting capital.

If you’re looking for the trade deadline’s biggest loser look no further; not because they held on to Matt Ducheneand Gabriel Landeskog– those are more of off-season deals – but because they held on to almost everyone else. When you’re the worst team in the league (by a mile) what reason do you have to not trade any impending free agent that has any value at all? Joe Sakic succeeded in moving Iginla, to his credit, but sat on his hands regarding a multitude of other pieces. It’s hard to believe that no one made a suitable offer for any of Blake Comeau, Joe Colborne, John Mitchell, Rene Bourque, Fedor Tyutin, or Patrick Wiercioch. If any of those players could have been moved for picks or prospects, it would have benefited the franchise. Instead, a team with just 37 points on the year will head into the 2017 NHL Draft with just seven picks.

Parenteau is a nice player and GM David Poile got him on sale due to his injury in giving away just a sixth-rounder. Nashville simply needed more at the deadline. The team has won four in a row and is playing perhaps their best hockey of the season right now. However, many expected them to be much better than their current pace. In it’s current composition, the Predators would likely be a long-shot to knock off the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round of the playoffs, and that’s if they can hold off the St. Louis Blues for that divisional spot. Scoring is an issue in Nashville and the team needed a bona fide top-six scorer, which Parenteau (and his 27 points) is not. If anyone was going to make a big play for an Evander Kane, Tyler Johnson, or one of Colorado’s two stars, it would have been Nashville. Instead, Poile decided to play it safe and it could come back to bite him.

Luckily, the Jets at least made one move at the last minute, or they would have been even bigger losers. Winnipeg is out of the playoff race and should have been all-out sellers. They don’t have much in the way of trade capital, but they certainly have more than just Stafford. Did they offer up impending UFA forward Chris Thorburn? How about cast-off goalie Ondrej Pavelec? Did they dangle Shawn Matthias? Did they push Mathieu Perreaultor Toby Enstrom? It was all quiet on the Winnipeg front today. No team was less involved in the deadline than the Jets, at least until half an hour or so after it was over. It’s unclear what GM Kevin Cheveldayoff’s plan was today, but hopefully this wasn’t it.

Comments

Im a Stars fan and im pretty happy with what they got in return. Gives us a real chance to stack Defensive players in the draft the next 2 years or even possibly flip some of the picks if a goalie becomes available.

Its been a rough season but based on the last few off seasons for GM Jim, I have faith in him and this organization!

I don’t think zach has watched many stars games the last few years.. Jordie Benn is hot garbage…To say the stars had an unsuccessful trade deadline bc they got rid of a guy stopping the progress of the younger defenseman on the roster is shortsighted.. The stars have been carrying 8 defenseman for 2 years now, they needed to alleviate the log jam